My family is having a tough year….

My whole extended family had something like 10 dogs between everyone at the start of this year and only 1 cat. We’re a dog family.

In January, my parent’s beloved yellow lab/golden cross got cancer at 11 years old and had to be put down within a week. In Feburary, my grandparents lost their stunninly handsome golden retriever, probably also to cancer. He was 12.

But now, my grandparent’s black lab/golden cross, who is only 7, has cancer. The tumors are right nest to her rectum and causing serious bowel issues. She is going to Dog Heaven on Saturday. They won’t be dogless, they have a 1 year old papillon (annoying little monster, but they love him), but still.

And my parent’s beagle is 13 nearing 14, and she is showing it. She has what *looks* like Parkingson’s disease, whatever you would call that in dogs.

All of these dogs I grew up with. I dressed them up, made them participate in tea parties, and slept with them in my bed. My grandparent’s dogs got them both through each other’s cancer treatments, and their golden had this uncanny ability to sense when he needed to get help and done some amazing things that he had never been taught in order to get the help that he knew Grandma or Papa needed.

@AllyCRN: I am so sorry. I can’t even imagine. I love my little monster so much and I honestly cannot imagine life without him. I will literally fall apart when it happens. I can deal with people death a lot easier than animal death. They are so innocent and trusting and rely on you for life itself…I just can’t stand to see them in pain. I can’t imagine my life without animals but dealing with their passing is just so terrible.

I wish dogs lived as long as people. Most of them deserve it more than we do.

@MrsPanda99: I totally agree. I want constant doggie (and maybe even kitty) love in my life, but I hate having to give them up.

@elliptical2013: Not weird at all. Furbabies are furbabies, whether they are dogs, kitties, birds, or what have you. They were literally my siblings. I have no human siblings, but the dogs we always like that to me. We actually did get blamed for each other’s messes!

I don’t know how to make pictures smaller, but I wanted to share a picture of our Angels.

On the far left is Bailey, who went to Heaven today. She was 7 (far too young) and had lymphoma. She originally belonged to my parents, but my grandma fell in love and basically kidnapped her.

To her left is my mom’s beloved, constantly scared of his own shadow, Jagger. He was 11 and had leukiemia. For every minute of his life, he would tread on my mom’s heels, or pout if she made him stay in another room.

The beagle is Abby, who is coming up on her 14th birthday and appears to be all right, besides some minor issues. Her teeth are horrifying, she can’t hear, and she has to wear fleece sweaters in the middle of summer because she gets cold, and she has what we have dubbed doggy Parkingson’s. Prayers that she stays around a little longer, until we can recover from these last few months.

To Abby’s left is Parson, my grandparent’s golden. He was 12 and we think he also had cancer, but that his cause of death was (or, more accurately, was going to be if we had not taken him) kidney failure. I do not exaggerate when I say that he has saved my grandparents multiple times from death or further injury by managing to warn another family member, even once when two closed doors seperated him from my grandpa (who had passed out on the stairs).

The other two, on the far right belong to some family friends. The black one has fought cancer and come out ahead, and the yellow one hasn’t had much of any issues besides stealing a pizza here and there.

Prayers that we don’t lose any more of our angels any time soon. Three in 9 months is more than enough. Darn those retrievers and their cancer.